Former New York City police detective Leuci unleashes another torrid cop thriller that captures the gritty tension of police work and the criminal mindset without aggrandizing either. The title of Leuci's fourth novel refers to Blaze Longo, who plunders the streets of Brooklyn's Red Hook section, carrying a pouch around his neck containing ears severed from the many people he's maimed in his line of work: kidnapping for profit. On Blaze's bloody trail is police captain Nora Riter, a gifted big shot in the department who looks disarmingly like a beautiful hippie. She doesn't much like the Longo investigation, having few contacts in Red Hook's criminal underworld. Suspicious about why her boss assigned her to the case and distracted by her crumbling marriage, Riter needs help. It comes in the form of Nicky Ossman, a Red Hook native, struggling actor and petty thief who grew up with Blaze and knows how the thug, who's also a loan shark and ringleader, gained a stranglehold on the neighborhood. Together, Riter and Ossman devise an elaborate sting, one that crosses ethical as well as legal boundaries. Leuci, who in real life testified against several New York City cops in a landmark corruption trial popularized in Robert Daly's Prince of the City, moves the action along briskly, showing sentimentality toward no one. The cops are often just as bad as the criminals, while the criminals occasionally show traces of dignity and grace. Leuci (The Snitch; Fence Jumpers) falls back on the standard archetypes of the cop novelAthe obsessively driven investigator, the squad room politics and sneaky tricks, the seemingly untouchable villainAand plenty of law-enforcement jargon. Yet he has the flavoring right in all the ingredients and keeps the focus on the characters, who, with their edgy realness, compensate for any predictable elements of the plot. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
"Blaze is serious bad news. He makes his living scaring people to death, because death is what he can deliver." A small-time loanshark who cuts off the ears of those who offend him, Blaze is nuts enough, but not smart enough, to plan the string of lucrative kidnappings he's conducted recently. So who's pulling his strings? Ambitious and beautiful police captain Nora Riter, assigned the task of bringing Blaze down, enlists sometime-wiseguy Nicky "The Hawk" Osman as an unwilling partner: "Help or go to jail," she tells him. The chemistry between the two complicates an already explosive mix. Leuci's novels (most recently The Snitch) aren't about detection as much as crime itself. His familiarity with the dark, dangerous underworld of crime and the lowlife players in the game redeems this somewhat uneven novel. The book starts slowly, but from the midpoint on, it's a high-energy ride. Recommended for public libraries.ADavid Keymer, California State Univ., Stanislaus
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
